MMI proposes Comtech board members

A shareholder of Melville-based Comtech Telecommunications Corp., investment firm, MMI Investments, said Monday that it nominated two candidates for the company’s board of directors because of concerns about Comtech’s declining revenue and earnings.

Comtech, whose products include satellite modems and various transmission technologies, said it recently met with representatives of MMI and is evaluating its proposal.

The investment firm owns 3.3 percent of Comtech’s outstanding shares. Jerome Lande, a partner at MMI and one of the two directors MMI is nominating, said there is an “urgent need for change” at Comtech.

“With the dramatic declines in revenue and earnings from the loss of the company’s two largest contracts and management’s and the Board’s potentially value-destroying acquisition strategy, we believe shareholders deserve better than the status quo,” Lande said in a statement.

The other director nominee is Samme Thompson, a former executive at Motorola.

Comtech’s board currently has 6 members.

Shareholder nominations are often a way for investment firms to engineer a takeover, prime a company for a sale from the inside, or otherwise exert their influence on key decisions such as acquisition strategies and other financial issues.

Comtech’s revenue for the nine months ended April 30 was $472.1 million, down from $521.3 million for the same period a year ago, the company said in June. It blamed the revenue decline on lower sales in its mobile data communications and microwave amplifiers segments, and said it expected income from the U.S. Army to decline significantly from current levels.

The company is scheduled to report its latest financial results on Wednesday.